The Journey to China begins....

We have completed the first leg of our long journey to China. We arrived in Houston around 7:00 p.m. tonight and will be staying overnight. Our flight for China departs at 6am tomorrow. It was, of course, a mad dash to the airport as both Keith and I were wrapping up last minute items before leaving. (It was actually more Keith than I). Leaving his business for 2 weeks has proven to take an enormous amount of forethought and planning on his part. He has been burning the midnight oil trying to take care of everything before we leave. My work was a little easier to wrap up, as I have several people both locally and in our corporate office that will pick up my slack while I am gone.

To our surprise, when we landed in Houston we received an email from our adoption agency with updated PICTURES and Information on Madelyn. Her pictures shows how much she has grown and how truly beautiful she is. (I think she looks like me - lol). The information was again very encouraging. She weighs 26 pounds and is 33 inches tall. The orphanage states the following:

- She has 16 teeth

- Her vocabulary consists of 50-60 words (This makes me nervous to think that she is speaking in short phrases and knows that many words in Chinese. I hope she can pick up our language quickly)

- She is potty trained and will ask to go to the bathroom unprompted, however, she has to be awaken at night and taken to potty.

- Her favorite foods is oranges and grapes. They also state that she is not a picky eater.

- She can feed herself with a spoon and drinks from a cup.

- She likes to play with others and does share both her food and toys.

- She can draw with a color or pencil but not in a straight line

- She follows directions from her caregivers without them having to point or gesture what they want her to do

- and much much more

This was a really good report that we received this time. It gave a lot of information that is relevant to us now that she will be coming home. I am not an expert in child development but in reading the information provided I am encouraged that she may not be too far behind the standard for her age.

I can't believe this is actually happening - that we are on this final leg of our journey. It all seems so surreal. I am getting VERY EXCITED now! Only a few more days and she will be in our arms!

Keith and I were just talking and commenting how wonderful our family and friends are. We love you all and appreciate your thoughts, prayers and offers of help while we are gone.

We will keep you posted. Tomorrow we fly all day and our next post will most likely be on Saturday.

Change in Blog Address

I was recently introduced to someone that had adopted from China previously. We have had several email conversations and she has become a valuable resource to me. In one of our many chats, she shared with me that I might encounter some difficulty posting and updating my blog while in China. Upon further investigation, it appears that China has blocked all gmail accounts, google products and eblogger. Censorship at it's finest. However foreign to me that concept is, I must deal with it. I have searched the internet to find a blog site that will work in China. Windows Spaces is reported to work. I have moved the travel portion of my blog to this site - http://portieadoptionjourney.spaces.live.com . This site will be allow me to blog, share pictures and videos. I am sorry for this change and I hope that all can continue to follow our blog.

Countdown....

We are on countdown.... 11 days and counting until we leave for China. We have spent the last week making travel arrangements and booking international flights. It has finally all come together. Here is the plan:

We leave January 20th from Lake Charles and will stay overnight in Houston in order to catch a 6am flight to Beijing. This is not a direct flight (although Continental considers it a direct flight). We will change planes in Newark, NJ and have a 2 hour layover there before heading to Beijing. We arrive in Beijing at 3pm on January 22. Once we arrive in Beijing, we will be staying at the Novotel Peace Hotel through Saturday, January 23rd. During our brief stay in Beijing we have to attend an orientation directed by our Adoption Agency that will brief us on what is to come during the next couple of weeks. We will do a little sightseeing and tour Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

On Sunday, January 24th we fly to Xi'an and will be staying at the Hyatt Regency. This is GOTCHA DAY - we will get our little girl this day and be able to take her with us. We finalize her adoption the next day and will apply for her a passport. We will stay in Xi'an until Friday, January 29th and will have time just to get to know each other, bond and enjoy some down time. Friday afternoon we should receive her passport and will catch a plane to Guangzhou. In Guangzhou we are staying at the White Swan Hotel. The US Consulate is located in this city along with 6 million other people. Keith thinks he hates Houston traffic - just wait until we get here! LOL. Madelyn will need to go through a complete medical exam as well as filing for a US entry Visa. We will stay in Guangzhou until we receive her VISA on February 4th. We will take a train to Hong Kong and will spend the night. This is our last stop in China. The morning of February 5th we will catch a flight to the US and will arrive in Lake Charles at 10:02 p.m. For those that feel so inclined to do so - we would love to see you when we step off the plane in Lake Charles. We will be so homesick for our friends and family and would absolutely love for all of you to meet Madelyn as she arrives home.

Again, we will be communicating through Skype both on our laptops via video connection and through the iPhone Skype app via voice connection. If you have a Skype account please let me know what it is and we can connect.

We still have a couple things left to take care of before we are ready to leave, but we are working on them each day and the list is getting smaller. We purchased a new digital video camera to make it easier for us to download videos of her and share on our blog. I have attached a test video to this blog.

Aside from all the details, I am a bit nervous about flying and so much travel BUT I am "over the moon" excited and can't wait to get my hands on my baby girl!!! We are soooo close.

I'll keep you all posted. Thanks for all your prayers and support along the way!

Travel...

We finally received the confirmation from the US Consulate of our VISA appointment which dictates our travel dates. Although we are waiting on the in-country travel arrangements to be finalized, we are confirmed to arrive in Beijing on January 22nd. Once we arrive in Beijing we have more travel which is what our adoption agency is working on confirming. We will travel to Shaanxi Province (which is where Madelyn's orphanage is located) and then on to Guangzhou to the US Consulate and then HOME.

I can't believe it is finally here. All of the paperwork, roadblocks and waiting is almost over. This is the last leg of our journey to get Madelyn. This news stirs many different emotions in me. Excitement that I will actually get to meet her and hold her and love her. Anxiety about the travel to China, while we are in China and the travel back home (I am not a big fan of flying). Worry about how I will handle a 2 year old once we get home. It has been a long time since my kids were toddlers. But what I feel most is Overwhelming JOY that my family will finally be all together and the 5th member of my family will be HOME - safe and sound where is she loved.

This week we should have confirmation of all travel and will be able to book our flights to China. I was on vacation the week after Christmas and was able to get many tasks accomplished for upcoming events for the kids and things for our upcoming trip. I was able to get Madelyn's suitcase packed and am working on packing for both Keith and I. There are still many things to get done before we leave.

I will update my blog with our itinerary once it is confirmed and then on a daily basis while we are in China. I hope to post some videos so that all can see Madelyn. I have also downloaded Skype onto my laptop, mainly so I can communicate with my kids at home while we are gone. For those that have web cams and are on Skype - let me know your Skype name and we can video conference each other.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. They have meant so much to me and our family, especially through the agonizing wait. I will ask that you continue to keep us in your prayers as we travel there and back.